GREEN GROW THE RUSHES-O
I had not seen Hugo Calthrop since he was twelve, when his
resemblance to Gladys was only latent. He was killed in Burma
during those weeks of disaster foEowing the fall of Singapore. He
and his men were suddenly surrounded at dawn by a pest and
chatter of Japs who outnumbered them by five to one. Hugo was
last seen "rushing out of his tent, his tommy-gun under his arm",
a description by one of the men who had so valued him that they
came back dangerously to search in vain after the fight was over
and the Japs had gone; a description giving me the same picture,
the same joyful flash as of Hugo rushing forward, eager and
welcoming, a cocktail in each hand.
I could add of him that he was affectionate, sensitive, sincere,
keen, and showed promise as an architect; but it reads altogether
too like a headmaster's report, and rules out that life which so
abundantly informed him. "Nimble and light of limb, in three
elements free, to run, to ride, to swim"—If we are dead honest,
might there not be now, in our manner of quoting Bishop Beeching's
last line, an inflection of bitterness 2 "Take the thanks of a boy" ...
fo& a second world-war only twenty years after the first.
Yet with whom can we be bitter ?
When he was twelve, I asked Gladys if she could let me have
some expert information on duck-shooting in Suffolk, for one of
my novels ? "I'll pass it on to Hugo," she said, "he's the expert."
Hugo wrote: "Here's all I know: you start and get up at six
o'clock and make some hot tea,. and something to eat, dress and
row downstream and land and tie up your boat, and shoot from
the shore, you land about 7.15 just as it i$ getting light, you shoot
in December, January, November and February, generally after
a spell of very frosty weather is best.
"Your boat is a gunning punt which is a low boat 18' long
and 3' 6" at the broadest end with a cockpit about 7' long, the
rest being decked in, it has 4" clearance from the water and a
'coaming* or raised edge round the cockpit. It has a big or punt
gun, mounted in front, but this you won't use. You take with
you a 12-bore gun, using 3* cartridges. You row your punt
sitting on the after-deck and you land on the mud at the eclge,
joining the marsh and the estuary, and you wait shivering in die
darkness. As it gets lighter and lighter you hear widgeon flying
over, the drakes whistling a shrill 'weeoh.*, the ducks making a
purring note. And teal with a low double whisde, and mallard
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